Our Verdict

This mountain biking glove also works great as a big wall belay and cleaning glove. This type of glove gives much better dexterity and breathability than full-finger leather gloves. That said, it is not nearly as durable as a big wall leather glove.

This is my favorite light big wall glove for cleaning and belaying. I bring it on a mostly-free wall like The Nose or Half Dome. I also bring this glove on multi-pitch free routes where I want the lightest glove possible on the side of my harness. If I wanted a glove to use a lot on aid lead I would go with the Black Diamond Stone glove or, if I was on a budget, I would make my own Homemade Fingerless Climbing Glove.

NOTE: This is not just a review of this glove, it is a review of all full-finger mountain biking gloves or construction gloves that are similar. There are a lot of different full-finger gloves like this that will work. Just go into any bike shop or hardware store and try on all the ones with good palm padding. I like no padding on the back knuckles so I get more dexterity. But you may prefer the padding to protect your knuckles.

Our Analysis and Test Results

Likes

The best thing about this glove is its dexterity while being full-fingered. You can confidently clean pieces without worrying you will drop them. In contrast, if you clean pitches with full-fingered leather gloves, you will have to concentrate much harder to make sure you don't drop stuff. Or, more likely, you won't want to clean with a full-fingered glove whether on a big wall or doing multi-pitch climbing. If you are belaying a sport climb, you have more confidence about being able to pay out rope quickly than with a beefier leather glove. With the full-finger protection, at the end of the day your fingers won't be all black and worked. These are great for people who find typical belay gloves too clunky. They also are by far the lightest gloves for belaying. You hardly notice them on your harness, which makes them great for multi-pitch free climbs.

Dislikes

For all the extra dexterity with this glove, you lose durability. If you are hard on your gloves, it won't take long to burn through a pair. If you are careful, you can get them to last for a handful of walls before needing to be replaced. If you are doing a lot of sport belaying, they will probably only last ten days of climbing. If you carefully baby them on multi-pitch trad climbs as I do, they can last a long time.

For big wall climbing, this glove is not suitable for leading. That means you either have to lead without gloves or bring a second pair of fingerless gloves for leading. For this reason, I don't bring these on aid-intensive walls. Instead, I bring them on a wall like The Nose of El Capitan. I lead without gloves and then put these on to clean pitches and belay.

Personal Stories

I have been through a lot of different "glove phases." When I first started big wall climbing I used fingerless mountain bike gloves that only went to the first knuckle. Then I was introduced to making my own Homemade Fingerless Climbing Glove, which got me through the next 50 walls or so. Then I moved to 3/4 length mountain bike gloves. Now my favorite option for most clean aid walls is full-finger mountain bike gloves like these. On a big wall I use them for belaying and cleaning and then take them off for leads. The exception is a on a super-aid-intensive wall, in which case I would bring the Black Diamond Stone glove.

Best Application

These are good for mostly free big walls like The Nose or Half Dome or multi-pitch free climbing. For a really intense nailing wall they might get shredded before the top, depending on how hard you wear your gear.

Value

At $25, this is $10-15 cheaper than most belay gloves. That said, you really need to baby them to keep them from wearing out. And even then they are going to wear out twice as fast as a beefy leather glove.